His Leading Lady by Jean Joachim Page B

he sold stuff from friends or acquaintances. Or, he’d
run up a bar tab. And the marshall would come put a lien on the
house until I paid up. The house was in his name. He had his little
ways, and I was too naïve and stupid to be one step ahead.”
    “It must have been hard.”
    “It was. He’d apologize and say it wouldn’t
happen again, but it always did. He kept taking my car and driving
drunk. He got three DUI’s. That’s when I got the call. The call
that changed everything.” She stopped to take a sip and compose
herself.
    “It was from the police. He’d been arrested.
It was awful, because they wouldn’t let him out on bail this time.
He had to stand trial. You can’t imagine what it does to see your
father in jail.”
    Mark sat quietly, staring at her. The
expression on his face appeared sympathetic. But her confidence was
so shaken, she didn’t trust her own instincts. “What did you do?”
Mark sucked on his beer.
    “The judge gave him one chance.”
    “And that was?” Mark seemed to be hanging on
every word.
    “If my dad agreed to go to rehab, he’d
suspend his sentence.” She sipped her wine.
    “And did he?”
    “We didn’t have the money to send him. I
wanted to. He swore up and down that he’d kick alcohol, if he could
only go to rehab instead of jail. I believed him. He seemed so
sincere.”
    “And did he?”
    “With legal fees, on top of everything, I was
broke. I’d been modeling some, but rehab was five thousand dollars
a week. A week! Can you imagine? He was supposed to go for a
minimum of three weeks. The counselor told me he needed to go for
four weeks. Where was I going to get twenty grand?” Penny twisted a
tissue in her hands.
    Mark leaned forward. “What did you do?”
    “I went crying to one of the photographers I
knew. He’d asked me to pose nude before, but I’d turned him down.
He’d offered me a lot of money.”
    Mark hung his head. “But this time…”
    “This time, I said ‘yes.’ I had no other
choice. My back was to the wall. How could I let my father rot in
jail for five years because I wouldn’t take my clothes off for a
few pictures? He swore they were only for one private client and
would never surface publicly. Like an idiot, I believed him. What
would you have done?” By now, tears were streaming down her face.
She tried to clean them up, but they kept coming. Mark sat with his
head in his hands.
    “I had no idea those pictures would still be
around years later. If I’d known then that my father was
manipulating me again and never intended to give up alcohol, I
would’ve left him in jail. I was only twenty-one, and he was all I
had. So, I believed him.”
    “What happened with the pictures?”
    Penny dried her eyes. “The shoot was awful. I
hated being naked in front of Fred. He was a letch. I did it as
fast as I could and covered up between shots. Then, he asked me out
and refused to accept ‘no.’ So, I hit him.”
    Mark’s head snapped up. “You hit him?”
    “I’m not proud of it, but I had to defend
myself. He wouldn’t leave me alone, had his hands all over me. I
grabbed an empty bottle we were using as a prop and bashed him over
the head. He wasn’t unconscious, but he was dazed. I finished
dressing, grabbed my check, and flew out of his place. I went right
to the bank, as I was afraid he’d stop payment.”
    “That was quick thinking.”
    She shivered at the memory. “When my father
got out of rehab, he went right back to drinking. He showed up on
my doorstep, drunk, begging for money.”
    “What did you do?”
    “I had stopped paying for the house. I let it
go into default, saving up enough money to start over. When he
showed up, I was preparing to leave anyway. I told him to come back
later in the week when I got paid. But that was a lie. He believed
me and left. The next morning, I packed my car, cleaned out my back
account, and left town. I went to Los Angles to stay with a friend.
She helped me get an agent, and I